The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that Boeing fired "at least one employee," Nicholas Tides, for talking to the newspaper for a series of stories that criticized Boeing.

As this blog noted, the paper reported in July that Boeing spent millions of dollars bringing in consultants to test its financial systems for fraud--in part because of its "inability to patch database and software development security holes" revealed during audits for Boeing's compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley.

The paper would not say if the stories used any information from Tides. But it reports receiving an anonymous e-mail on Friday that Boeing is hunting for "SOX whistleblowers." Boeing would not comment on the e-mail or Tides and denied the original stories.

Tides said he never expected to lose his job and was "trying...to save the company."